Going Hunting for Snipes
by Cubby250
Summary: No, it's not hunting for birds. Cubby is tasked with hunting the legendary Snipes of Neverland which obviously must be real.
"I don't think he can do it."

"Why not? Every other Lost Boy can do it."

"Yeah, but he's a _new_ Lost Boy. He might not be able to handle it like we can."

"Awww, I bet he can. He's not as clumsy as he looks, you know."

I rolled off my pallet under the table and looked up at Red and Tig. "What can't I do?" I directed it to Tigger since Red had sort of been sticking up for me.

Tigger looked at Red and rolled his eyes. "It's not nothing really. Just finding snipes."

"A snipe hunt? You gotta be kidding. Not even _I_ am going to fall for that one. Gimme a break."

Tigger looked at Red and chuckled. "Told ya he was scared."

"I'm not scared, I'm just not dumb."

"Awww, don't pay any attention to him. He's just being… Tig. Snipes really do exist here. They look sort of like big squirrels or small raccoons and are black. They're really hard to catch, but every Lost Boy can do it."

I chewed on the side of my thumb while I was thinking about it. "You're kidding, right?"

Tig laughed. "It's okay, you'll find out about them one of these days. It's sort of how Lost Boys prove that they're Lost Boys." Red looked at Tigger with a frown but only got an innocent look in return.

"I thought that when Peter rescued us that made us Lost Boys. I didn't know there was going to be a test."

"There isn't," Red said, continuing to glare at Tigger. "You're as much one as the rest of us are."

"What's a snipe hunt consist of?"

"Nothing much. You just have to follow their tracks, find their den, and bring back some of their fur." Before I could object, he explained. "They shed a lot and their fur is different than anything else. You just grab a handful and bring it back. It's easy, but you have to do it after the witching hour."

"Why?" I figured if I was going to be searching for their den, then it would be a lot easier to do it during the day.

Red took over. "It's cuz they're snipes. They're kind of magical. They aren't around during the day or before midnight. They exist in a bunch of places and they're only here between midnight and when the unicorn star sets. It's some sort of magic thing I guess."

"You could do it tonight, you know. It wouldn't take too long I bet. There's a snipe run that goes by the Tree."

The whole thing seemed sort of weird to me, but then on the Island everything could appear weird at one time or another. The best part of the Island was also the worst part of it. There wasn't anything that was too impossible to happen so I never knew whether what I was being told was true or not. Still, I worried about fitting in with the others. I don't know why I was so worried about that. It had never bothered me that much in the 'real' world, and I don't know why it was such a big deal now. "Are you sure tonight would be the best time?" Tigger and Red nodded their heads in unison, their hoods sliding back off their heads. "Yeah, okay."

"Oh, and you gotta go by yourself. You also have to follow the trail exactly. You can't take shortcuts or follow like a couple of feet on either side of the trail. You have to walk right where the snipes walk."

"What?"

"If more than one Lost Boy tries to trap a snipe, they all vanish cuz they know that we're on the hunt for them. Same with their trail. If you try to follow from a distance or take short cuts, it'll lead you astray. It's another magic thing. Plus you already said you'd go, and you can't change your mind once you agree."

That sounded suspiciously like a rule that Lost Boys weren't supposed to have, but I didn't say anything about it. Instead I squeezed through my trapdoor and went to find Leo. He was outside whittling on a stick, making a whistle. "What's up Cubster?"

"Uh… please don't call me that. It sounds babyish. Listen, are snipes for real?"

"Sure. All of us get to go snipe hunting sometime. It's kind of a tradition. You're not going to do it this early are you?"

I shook my head. "Naw, I was going to wait 'til after midnight like you're supposed to."

"I didn't mean that early, I meant early as only being a Lost Boy for a little while. Only a few attempt to do it this soon after they've reached the island. You have to be able to see their tracks." He frowned and then grinned. "But I guess you'll know pretty quick if you can't see them."

"Yeah, I guess so." I was really thankful to have something else to worry about. I had figured finding the tracks would have been the least of my problems. At least when I was first starting out. I left Leo to his whittling and squeezed back through my trapdoor. If Leo said there were snipes, than chances were excellent they really did exist and I had to track them to prove I was a real Lost Boy even though no one had actually said that.

A few hours later, I was standing outside Hangman's Tree with a lantern full of fireflies than hung from my club. They didn't provide a lot of light,. But there was also a full moon and a whole sky full of stars. Tigger was searching the ground next to the tree as I stood and watched. After a few minutes he motioned me over and pointed to the ground. "That's a snipe track." He was pointing to a really weird looking print. There were three round circles at the top in a kind of fan pattern with a single round circle at the bottom of about the same size. "What's it made of? It looks like mud," I said, staring at the track.

"That's part of the magic and why you can only track them at night. It's kind of mud and clay from wherever they come from. Remember these are magical beasties. Sort of like unicorns."

I had a horrible vision of being surrounded by a bunch of raccoons with razor sharp horns growing out of their foreheads trying to use me as some sort of pincushion. "They don't have horns or bite, do they?"

Tigger's face took on a horrid yellow-green cast as it caught the fireflies' light. His grin caused me to step back a pace. "They don't _normally_ bite, but you never know. Sometimes they think one of us is a pirate and things just happen. There was one Lost Boy who never returned from his snipe hunt. No one knows what happened to him. They say that his spirit has been wandering the Island ever since trying to get back to Hangman's Tree but that the snipes won't let him. When the wind's right, you can hear him screaming."

"Aw, c'mon. You don't think I'm going to believe in ghost stories, do you? Anyway, Lost Boys don't scream. We yell."

Tigger laughed. "Don't worry Cub, you're Lost Boy through and through. You'll be back in no time. I hope." He disappeared through his trap door and I was left standing next to the tree with nothing but the fireflies and a cold breeze for company. The tracks led down the path that ran by the tree, and after a slight hesitation I started to follow them. At least I had passed the first test of being able to see them. At first I thought things were going to be really easy. The tracks ran along the trail and were real easy to follow. The sounds of crickets and bullfrogs kept me company and there was more than enough light to see. I even began to wonder if maybe I wasn't quite as big a coward as I thought I was.

The thought hadn't kicked around in my mind very long at all when the tracks left the trail and disappeared into the woods. I stood on the trail and looked among the trees. It looked as though every shadow in the world had decided to hang out in this forest this evening. The trees blocked out most of the moon and starlight, but I still had the firefly lantern. I shivered once and then followed the snipe trail into the woods. It became almost pitch black, even with the fireflies. Fortunately the snipe tracks reflected the firefly light really well. It was hard to make out anything more than a few inches away, but the snipe tracks reflected from a couple of feet. The crickets and frogs were still singing away too, so I figured there wasn't anything to worry about.

A couple hundred yards brought me to the tree. It was the most average looking pine tree in the world except for the snipe tracks. The tracks led to the tree and then went up the tree. Not branch-to-branch, but up the side of the trunk. No one had told me anything like that was possible. Of course I had forgotten to ask where snipe dens were usually located. For all I know snipes could have nests in trees. I knew I'd try to live in a tree if I were as small as a snipe and lived in a forest full of big critters. I had to put the handle of the lantern between my teeth and leave my club on the ground by the tree cuz I couldn't hold it while I was climbing. I followed the tracks up to almost the top of the tree. They finally followed a thin branch that didn't seem to lead to anything. I followed as far as I could, the branch bending dangerously under my weight. "Aw c'mon. That's impossible," I told the night as I picked out the fact that the tracks extended beyond the branch I was on and were floating in mid-air. There was a rustling in the woods from below that had been pretty much continuous since I'd entered them and I hoped it was just some tiny critters doing their regular night things, so I tried to ignore it. I couldn't see where the tracks went and knew it was no use to try and follow on the branch I was on.

Figuring retreat was the best option, I tried slowly turning around on the branch. It didn't appreciate it and began to creak alarmingly. Next I tried to turn around on the branch. That was no better and in an instant I was hanging upside down from the branch like some sort of sloth. The firefly lantern was not against my face and I couldn't see anything. I began trying to move towards the trunk again when the branch let me know it had had enough. There was a crack like a rifle shot and the lantern was no longer a problem because I was falling towards the ground. I'm not sure how many limbs and branches I bounced off of, but when I finally reached the bottom, it seemed like there were a lot more stars than there had been earlier. As I waited for the moving stars to go away, I thought I heard someone laughing but after listening closely figured out it must have been the wind through the pine boughs.

I finally got to my feet and retrieved the lantern, which was amazingly still in one piece, and my club. The fireflies didn't appear to be very happy with their treatment, but all of them were still flashing. I held it up as high as I could and by squinting saw that the floating tracks seemed to lead to another tree. Sure enough, when I got to the trunk of the other tree, I found the weird tracks going back to ground and heading through the woods again. With a sigh, I took off after them again. The behavior of the tracks was really weird. There wasn't really any rhyme or reason as to the direction they took. They'd go up an impossibly steep hill when not ten feet away was a much easier way to get up the hill. They doubled and tripled back on themselves. They'd go straight up the side of a ridge and switchback in a straight level area between the trees. One thing I did discover about snipes was that they seemed to love going to the most shadowy places possible. If there was an area of the woods that had some moonlight or starlight peeking through the canopy above, the tracks changed course and went through the darkest, most shadowy route available.

It was going through one of the blackest areas of shadow that I absolutely lost it. The snipe trail led between two trees that were very close together. Extremely close. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not built to go between two trees that are very close together. It seemed to take forever and I ended up having to climb a couple of feet up one of them in order to squeeze between them. I'd ended up carrying the firefly lantern between my teeth again and was climbing back down when I sneezed without warning. The lantern went careening towards the ground and I watched in dismay as the door flew open when it hit bottom. The fireflies were stunned for an instant, but then rapidly left both lantern and woods leaving me in darkness. It was more falling than climbing down, but I reached the forest floor and collapsed against one of the tree trunks, panting. I looked around, but couldn't see anything. The rustling of brush that had followed me throughout the hunt continued. The darkness was growing and was getting ready to swallow me up. The sounds in the woods grew louder and I heard a keening sound that was both heart-breaking and terrifying. The rustling got louder and louder and I knew that I was going to be another Lost Boy who disappeared on a snipe hunt. I screamed.

Screaming is something I can do very well. When you're the most cowardly Lost Boy, it's sort of a given that screaming well is going to be one of your major talents. It goes along with being able to gallop faster than any other Lost Boy can run (but only happens when you're terrified and not when you're trying to avoid being tagged) and being able to imagine the most wildly improbable reasons for sounds, visions, or anything else presented. This time, though, something went wrong. I had opened my mouth and let fly a scream of absolutely perfectly epic proportions. Maybe it was cuz my teeth were chattering or I was getting ready to cough, or something like that. Whatever the reason the scream that started in my lungs got transformed in my throat and came out as a perfect howl. It was so real, I managed to scare myself with it. The upside was that it was such a surprise, I sat there in the leaves for a moment trying to figure out what had happened and forgot to be scared at all.

The fear slammed back when the howl was answered by something that sounded way too close. I surged up to my feet and took off galloping as fast as I could. This only lasted for a second because there was still that problem of being unable to see anything, including the tree in front of me. I bounced off the tree with the front of my head, tried to select a new direction, got my feet tangled up in the club (which should be impossible but which I managed very nicely), and fell backwards hitting the back of my head this time. My consciousness decided it'd had more than enough of this whole fear/pain thing and fled, leaving me to take a quick nap.

I woke up to discover something was eating my face. My face was covered in slobber and I could feel the creature probing it looking for the best place to take its first bite. I think I whimpered right before begging the creature not to eat me.

*You're kind of funny,* a voice in my head said in a dry, laughing tone. *We don't eat those of the Pack Who Are Not Found. Are you feeling more of whole?* I realized rather sheepishly that the eating I thought was being done was actually only something licking my face. Kind of like a puppy. Still, I didn't know that it wasn't trying to lure me into letting down my guard. This time I laughed because the thought of something having to go to the trouble of making a big clumsy person such as myself let down their guard was… laughable.

"Who are you?" I asked as I slowly sat up. I got dizzy for a moment, but it passed.

*I'm Ember of the Pack Who Are By The River Where It Falls Shortly.* The feeling of the words turned to curiosity. *You howled very good for one who does not bound, yet I have not heard you before. You must be new from someplace else recently.*

"Uh, yeah. I'm a new Lost Boy. At least pretty new. My name is Cubby." I was doing my best to be calm and was surprisingly having a lot more success than normal. Yet I still suddenly blurted out, "You're not going to kill me are you?"

There was a long pause. *That is a foolish thought. We are taught that pack mates only do harm to another when leadership or Dire Things are involved. These are things that cubs such as us have no need to concern ourselves with for now. Does not your elders teach you these things?*

"We don't really have elders. Peter might be considered an elder I guess, but he'd sure get mad if you told him that. He's more like a leader than an elder. He doesn't grow up. None of us do. That's part of what bein' a Lost Boy is all about. And none of us would ever try to be the leader. Peter does that cuz he can crow better than the rest of us. That's not the only reason. It's also cuz he rescued us before we would have died in the 'real' world and brought us because…" I wound down because none of us Lost Boys really knew why Peter rescued Lost Boys. We were just eternally grateful that he did. I wasn't sure what had suddenly made me so talkative unless it was the fact that it didn't seem like I was going to be eaten. From Ember came a wave of curiosity to my story. Not any words, just a feeling of interest. Somewhere inside my muddled mind a thought finally managed to catch its own tail and a connection was made. "You're a wolf, aren't you?" There was a feeling of acknowledgement from Ember and I went from calm to terrified in less than a second.

Ember's reaction to my terror was immediate. I felt such a wave of total sadness from the wolf cub that tears formed in my eyes and I came close to breaking down completely and wailing. "Ember. No. I didn't mean…" I moved towards where I thought he was standing and managed to ram my chin into his snout which cause him to yelp. I finally managed to get my arms around his neck and buried my face in his fur. "It's not you. I'm… I'm just a cub too. I don't know about the ways of wolves or things like that. I haven't been a Lost Boy real long and I'm just learning stuff." The feeling of sadness coming from Ember lessened. I started to tell him I wanted to be his friend, but that didn't seem right for some reason. Instead I thought about wanting to be his friend and then tried to 'send' it to him. Naturally I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I tried to strain as hard as I could to get the message across to him. I think I bit my lip and crossed my eyes in the process.

*What are you doing?* he asked with a puzzled feeling.

"Trying to let you know that I want to be friends." I said, removing my face from his neck and getting unsteadily to my feet.

I got the impression of happiness and of a puppy, albeit a huge one, playing with its litter-mates. *I know. I don't understand the tensing of your muscles or why you are chewing on your lips.*

"Oh," I said, embarrassed. "I… Uh, I just wanted to make sure that what I wanted to send made it to you. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right or not." Thoughts of laughter and humor brushed my mind, but it was companionable laughing and not being laughed at. It was the same sort of laughter I shared with the other Lost Boys. We teased each other a lot and none of us were shy about pointing out each other's shortcomings, but it was never mean-spirited and each of us tended to laugh more at ourselves. "I'm pretty much scared of everything," I mumbled, trying to explain my reaction to the discovery he was a wolf. "Even my shadow can be pretty scary."

There was a feeling of understanding. *Sometimes cubs can be fearful of those things which don't easy frighten oldsters. One day I'm going to be the most fearless in my pack and will go on to do Great Things.* The understanding changed back to curiosity. I'd find that was a feeling that Ember gave off a lot. *How is it you find yourself out here though? It does not seem this would be a time or place in which one who was not quite sure of his footing would find themselves.*

I sort of liked being described as not being sure of my footing instead of being scared to death. His question brought back the immediate problem of the snipe hunt. I explained to him what was going on and asked if he knew if the unicorn star had set yet.

*No. The unicorn star is near the end of the sky yet has not gone beyond its bounds as yet.* There was a definite laughter about his words, but I was too concerned to pay any attention beyond noticing it.

"It doesn't matter," I sighed. "I lost the fireflies so I can't even see the tracks anymore."

*Are they the strange four circle tracks? I am able to see them and could lead you to their conclusion.*

I got excited but only for a moment as I remembered Tigger's words. "It wouldn't work. They can tell they're being followed if more than one follows them. Rats."

The feeling of laughter returned. *I am fairly certain such restrictions do not apply to wolves. Mayhap we should try as you would lose nothing if it did not work.* That made sense, so I agreed. Ember had me catch hold of his tail and then started slowly off. I followed him through a winding path that continued to defy any sense or logic. I did discover that he liked to stomp through mud puddles as much as I did and that there were times he could be sort of clumsy too. Like when he slipped on the river bank and we both tumbled into the water. Eventually, though, we came to a large meadow. In the center was a large tree stump that looked vaguely threatening. Ember came to a stop as we stared at the scene. The moon hadn't set yet, so now I could see the tracks which led straight to the stump. I glanced up to see the unicorn star perched on the top of a mountain.

"I have to hurry, it's almost too late," I said as I rushed past Ember and ran towards the stump.

*Wait, Cubby. I do not think what you expect to find is what you will find.* Normally I'd have come to a dead stop on hearing those words, but the sending wasn't tinged with concern. It almost felt as though Ember was chocking with barely contained laughter. I grinned too because I figured he was laughing at my gallop across the meadow. Tigger always thought it was funny when I 'ran,' and he was the one who had said that it looked more like a gallop. Besides, there wasn't any time to lose. I knew the unicorn star would vanish from the sky at any moment.

I reached the stump in record time (for me) and saw there was a hollow in it that the tracks seemed to disappear into. In a sudden show of bravery, I leaned over, reached my hand into the hollow, felt a pile of fur and pulled it out. My yell of triumph as I stood up got cut off as I saw in the moonlight that it hadn't been loose fur I'd grabbed, but a real, live snipe. Following really close on that thought was the realization that it wasn't a snipe I was holding in my hand, but a skunk. A very unhappy skunk. An extremely irritated, unhappy skunk.

I'm pretty sure it was a trick of the moonlight, but I swear that the skunk looked at me with the evilest of grins before it let fly with that thing that skunks do best. I suddenly couldn't breathe or see anything and sat down hard on my rump as I released my grip on the skunk. I could feel more laughter from Ember, although it wasn't nearly as successfully choked off as it had been earlier, along with a feeling of concern for a pack mate. I heard him howl and listened to what seemed like a half dozen responses. I knuckled my eyes and wiped them with the sleeve of the bear pelt, which didn't smell anything like bear or any other thing but skunk, and was finally able to see blurry images through the tears. I looked to see a number of wolves appear around Ember. They looked to be all ages and ranged from Ember's size, who came up to my stomach, to the height of a small pony. Even more amazing was the fact that they were herding or dragging Lost Boys along with them. Even blurry-eyed and in moonlight I could see the boys' grins, even Roo's. Red looked as though he was trying to decide whether to laugh out loud or look guilty. Laughter won and I was glad that it had.

Tigger explained that during the day while Stumble, who was sort of the Lost Boy's current archivist, was regaling me with stories, the rest of them had been busy laying down the snipe tracks. They knew that being a Lost Boy, I could be enthralled for hours when it came to stories. Then Tigger and Red had held their conversation that I'd 'accidentally' heard. When I'd heard rustling in the woods, it had been the rest of the Lost Boys that I was hearing because they naturally wanted to see what would happen and make sure I didn't run into something I couldn't handle without some help. They hadn't counted on the howling, "That was the coolest thing I ever heard," Red said enviously, or that Ember would show up although it hadn't ruined the plans too badly. Especially having dropped the firefly lamp. They also hadn't expected to be rounded up by the wolves although I learned that Lost Boys and wolves played a lot together, especially tag. Ember had smelled the skunk, but also knew I was on a snipe hunt. Apparently wolves had snipe hunts too and he wasn't sure whether it would have been a good thing to stop me or not. Instead he prudently stayed upwind and then respectfully requested that the wolves round up the Lost Boys that he knew were out there.

I grumbled a bit, but was assured of the fact that every Lost Boy since forever had followed snipe tracks to this stump and had gotten sprayed by a skunk. "I don't think it's the same skunk," Surefoot said, "but there's always one there no matter how many times this has been done." "I wasn't lying. It really is a tradition," Tigger added.

I said goodbye to Ember who continued to prudently stay upwind of me. He promised that he'd take me exploring soon and said he knew where a lot of interesting places were. He made interesting sound good.

"So now what?" I demanded after the wolves had left.

Leo held his nose. "Well you sure can't come back to the Tree. You stink, Cubbs."

That fact was one I wouldn't need reminding of. "No joke. How am I going to get rid of it?"

"How do ya normally get rid of stuff you don't want on your pelt?" Tigger asked with a malicious grin.

"I dunno. I guess you…" I stopped as it dawned on me. "No way. I'm not taking a bath. No way. No how. You can't make me."

Red shrugged in an exasperated manner. "We aren't going to tell you that you gotta take a bath." Stumble made a crossing finger gesture against the utterance of the dreaded 'B' word. "But you can't come back into the tree until you don't smell like skunk anymore."

"Fine. I don't care. I'll just live outdoors. I can handle it. You'll see." We started back towards Hangman's Tree, the rest of the boys being careful to stay upwind of me, and arrived at about the same time dawn did. I stayed outside and Stumble brought me some stew for breakfast, although he was careful not to get real close to me.

My resolve lasted for about half a day. I thought I might get used to the smell, but such wasn't the case. Before the afternoon had gotten too far along, I trudged to the swimming hole with soap and brush. I also had tomato juice that Surefoot had gleefully provided me with which he just happened to have borrowed from the Jolly Roger at some point. The swimming hole had a solid mass of beings around it, although an opening was quickly made as they caught scent of me. Everyone burst into applause and there were 'ooohhs and aaaaahhhs' as I entered the water. By the time I'd used the last of the tomato juice, which Surefoot kept supplying, to scrub my pelt and tangled mane, the sun was slanting towards the mountains and everyone but the Lost Boys had taken off.

I lay on the gravel beach feeling the sun warm my stomach and chest as it dried the soggy but immaculate pelt I was in. There was a thunk on my chest and I looked down to see a small bag of chocolate gold coins lying there. I squinted through the sunlight to see Red standing above me. "What's that for?"

"It's your part of the take. It's so rare for a Lost Boy to take a bath that we charged admission. It only happens a couple of times a year and they think it's good luck or something if they see one wash their pelt." I wondered if he was messing with my mind, but before I could ask, he changed the subject. "Could you really talk to Ember?"

"I guess so. I could sort of figure out what he was saying in my mind and he seemed to understand me. Can't all Lost Boys speak to wolves?"

"Wellll… sort of. We can catch images and things like that but they're more pictures than words. I wonder if you should have been in a wolf pelt."

I laughed. "Yeah, right. I know why Peter put me in a bear pelt. There probably isn't a wolf pelt big enough to fit me."

Red nodded in that way of his which seemed on the surface to agree with what you were saying but also let you know that he thought he knew something you didn't but wasn't going to tell you about it yet… or ever. "Anyway, you can come back into the Tree now since we don't have to re-christen you stinky." He nodded towards the coins and grinned. "Don't eat those all in one place."

I assured him I probably wouldn't and closed my eyes as he wandered away. For a long time I pondered if there would be any difference between wearing a bear pelt and a wolf pelt.


End file.
